Telkom have recently sacked an estimated 100 contractors, the trade union Solidarity has said. The process of
terminating employees’ services started in October this year already
and the services of several employees were already terminated last
month.

However, some of these employees who still showed up for work
today were turned away. The retrenchments come after the
telecommunication company gave employees here the assurance last week
that the planned retrenchment of both temporary and contract employees
would be postponed to 31 December.

Meanwhile, Telkom has announced in the media that the retrenched
temporary and contract employees could possibly be appointed
permanently. Apparently Solidarity has received no notification of these plans however.

Contractors affected by these retrenchments are employees with a direct
fixed-term contract with Telkom. Employees from labour brokers are not
included.

Solidarity meanwhile maintains that these retrenchments, as well as the
planned retrenchment of temporary employees, are unfair because Telkom
did not follow the Section 189 process required by law. The trade union
therefore emphasizes that the planned retrenchment process must be
started afresh.

“In terms of legislation, employers must also follow this process when
employees on fixed-term contracts are retrenched before the agreement
expires,” said Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans. “The
requirements of the process include, among other things, that a
consultation process between trade unions and the employer take place
in order to investigate alternatives to retrenchment and to agree on a
severance package. However, this was not done.”

Solidarity has described Telkom’s actions regarding the retrenchment of these employees as reprehensible.